Praedicator

Verba

Thursday, October 28, 2010 - Sts. Simon and Jude, apostles

[Ephesians 2:19-22 and Luke 6:12-16]

You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone. [Ephesians]

The feast of the two apostles, Simon and Jude, brings back memories of two preaching occasions for me. The memories are of two "novenas" that I have preached "in honor of St. Jude." ("Simon who was called a zealot" seems to have less appeal to the faithful!) The first was in Chicago at the Shrine of St. Jude, located at St. Pius V Church on the south side of Chicago. Those particular memories include my years as a member of the midwestern province of the Dominicans 1964-1979. The donations of the faithful at the shrine were a principal source of support for my seminary education! The second set of memories dates from last year at this time when I preached another novena in honor of St. Jude in a suburb of New Orleans! There I was continually reminded of what New Orleans had once been before Hurricane Katrina. (I have lived in New Orleans at least 14 years of my adult life, and visited there often as a child.) From both occasions, however, there is one memory that is the same: the fervent devotion of the faithful to St. Jude, who has the title of "patron saint of Hopeless Cases."
It was not difficult to read the anxiety of the people who came to the services. Everyone I spoke with, in or out of the confessional, had some trauma that threatened to overwhelm them and they turned to St. Jude for help. At the same time, St. Jude was a familiar friend and not just someone invoked only in time of dire need! Perhaps part of this derived from seeing friends and neighbors at the same services and wondering "What are THEY praying about?" Misery loves company. But shared faith is powerful and much mutual support could be found among those attending.
Catholic devotional piety has always been rather physical and the "veneration" of a relic of St. Jude is often part of one of these novenas. Much devotion and hope goes into kissing or touching the relic. Can that be any different than a physical touch of assurance, however brief, that we extend to one another in times of loss or need? Our faith can be a great comfort. If this comfort can be personified through devotion to a particular saint with a particular relationship to the Lord, then suffering is shared in the communion of saints. St Jude, pray for us! AMEN